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Subject: 
Re: Star Wars ruminations (was: Reality == fiction?)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.starwars
Date: 
Mon, 6 Nov 2000 18:00:40 GMT
Viewed: 
1345 times
  
Just to throw my two cents into the fray...

While I agree the running away was a lousy special effect, I think I understand
where GL was coming from with the super power effects.  As I've gleaned from
the various bits of written fiction, there were lots of things that the Jedi
could do when the were the bad-a**es of the universe.  Luke, being the last
(effectively) to be trained by Jedi from that era only knew about a few cool
things that Obi Wan and Yoda could impart to him before he ran off to get
turned to the dark side.

This has always seemed to sit well with TPM, where everyone is afraid of the
Jedi, except for the Sith, who laugh at them.  Among all the rest (I wouldn't
have been surprised by a musical number) the 'super powered' Jedi didn't bother
me at all.

Of course, this doesn't excuese Darth Maul not simply dropping something heavy
(Like the dead Qui Gon) on the dangling Obi Wan.

Sean

In lugnet.starwars, James Simpson writes:

I think that the movie was also degraded by the "super-powers" of Qui-Gon and
Obi-Wan.  Lucas would put his characters in a particularly tight spot, and • then
have then overcome the situation by an introduction of incredible abilities.

Ex:
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are cornered in a corridor by Droidekas firing rapidly.
Solution: They run at warp speed down the hall-way in what I humbly consider • as
the worst bit of special effects in the whole series.

Ex:
Obi-Wan falls oh, say 80 feet or more and lands on his shouler without so much
as a dislocation, and then takes a super-leap back up to the top.  I've seen
less cheese in old Super-Friends cartoons.

Ex: Obi-Wan is hanging in the abyss...Darth Maul is toying with him (ah...the
time-honored and always fresh plot device of having villains toy with their
victims just long enough to be out-witted by said victims), and Obi-Wan
levitats, nails a somersault, and slices Maul in half, *and* does it at the
speed of syrup being poured.  I think that it would have been more reasonable
for him to just activate that lightsaber by the force and have it cut off • Darth
Maul's feet or something.

But, you say, even Yoda levitated an X-Wing.  Yes, but it was not effortless.
By all previous accounts (save that silly scene when Luke falls into the • carbon
chamber), Jedis were able to project mind-over-matter with skill and
concentration, not as a matter of course.  Yes, they could act relatively
quickly in the moment to manipulate matter, but that wasn't really the crux of
their powers.  Lucas over-used their abilities in TPM as a convenient plot
device; no subtelty.  Got yourself in a bit of a plot conondrum?  No problem.
Just stretch the abilities of your characters and barrel right on through.



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Star Wars ruminations (was: Reality == fiction?)
 
(...) Or maybe just reaching down and cutting his hands off, eh? ~Mark "Muffin Head" Sandlin (24 years ago, 6-Nov-00, to lugnet.starwars)
  Re: Star Wars ruminations (was: Reality == fiction?)
 
(...) Before the movie came out, people were asking all kinds of things about what the Jedi would be doing. Would there be a Lightsaber duel? Would there be force powers? Etc, etc. Lucas basically answered their questions by saying that what we saw (...) (24 years ago, 6-Nov-00, to lugnet.starwars)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Star Wars ruminations (was: Reality == fiction?)
 
(...) I think that the movie was also degraded by the "super-powers" of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Lucas would put his characters in a particularly tight spot, and then have then overcome the situation by an introduction of incredible abilities. Ex: (...) (24 years ago, 6-Nov-00, to lugnet.starwars)

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